Title: Rural Public Health
Author:
Section/SPIG: Medical Care
Issue Date:
I’ve had two extraordinary opportunities in the last year to attend events that have the potential to improve rural public health. The first was scheduled on my birthday in September. I left my husband, cat, and promise of a wonderful meal and who knows what else to attend a Rural Public Health Research Agenda Setting Conference sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and the Center for Rural Health Practice. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, in the Health Resources and Services Administration, provided funding for the event, in part. IT WAS WORTH IT! Approximately 50 of us participated in an extraordinary 1.5-day effort learning, considering, and discussing research needs in six areas of rural public health:
• Rural Public Health Infrastructure;
• Workforce Development and Competency Enhancement;
• Rural Health Disparities;
• Access to Care/Safety Net Support;
• Rural Public Health Preparedness; and
• Environmental Health Issues.
The report on the proceedings, Bridging the Health Divide: The Rural Public Health Research Agenda, was recently released and is available at <http://www.upb.pitt.edu/crhp/>. The Agenda is being shared with the various funding sources throughout the U.S. Departmant of Health and Human Services as part of the Secretary’s Initiative on Rural Communities. Adoption of the agenda could make funds available.
Even better than reading the document, the Rural Committee of the Medical Care Section is hoping to sponsor a session on the Research Agenda at this year’s Annual Meeting. Look for it. Whether your interest is in environment, access to care, workforce, etc., you will come away with ideas and possible directions for future research activity.
The second event was a workshop sponsored by the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Future of Rural Health Care. Quality was the focus of the workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to provide Committee members with more in-depth information on issues. The public was invited to listen and to also ask questions and provide input to the committee. For information about the workshop, including presentations given, go to <http://www.iom.edu/subpage.asp?id=18224>. The release of the final committee report is scheduled for Fall 2004 and should coincide with APHA’s November Meeting in Washington, D.C. The Medical Care Section will be sponsoring a session on the IOM Report on the Future of Rural Health at the Meeting. Invited speakers include: Mary Wakefield, RN, PhD, Chair of the Committee; Janet Corrigan, IoM Staff; and Forest Calico, MD, MPH, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, USDHHS, HRSA.
These are only two, although two major, rural-focused activities that have occurred over the last year. Other opportunities that have recently passed, but hopefully not gone away (pending continued funding), include the AHRQ grant: Transforming Healthcare Quality through Information Technology. This grant program represents an initial foray by AHRQ into the non-research, planning and implementation world. Millions of dollars were set-aide for rural planning and rural implementation proposals. These grants provide an extraordinary opportunity for rural public health to plan and implement much needed disease surveillance systems, as well as to monitor health outcomes within populations. Hopefully, we will hear about the results of these planning efforts and some preliminary reports on implementation at our Annual Meeting in 2005.
What more can I say? Rural public health is on the nation’s radar screen. Tell your colleagues that the place to be for rural public health is in the Medical Care Section at APHA. See you in D.C.!!!!